In a revolutionary and completely novel spin to the current TV measurement wars, MTV Networks is telling the marketing world that they are in fact a system of important audience collectives and won’t be treated like the other traditional measured media - like the rest of those old-fogey-grey-beard nets.

As part of this fascinating approach, MTV is advising the ad world that just as “regular” television is being pushed toward a more responsive and responsible measurement platform (looking at commercial pods instead of total program viewership, and eventually actual spot position audience), the MTV Net’s audience is too busy and non-linear in their attention focus to watch commercials. But, what a great looking audience it is!

Basically, MTV is telling media buyers that they should pay up because of who watches the Network’s shows, not for the idiots that bother to watch the commercials that support those shows. You know, like, how pedestrian is that?

The reason the Network that basically invented premium cost per demo and that began the stratification and delineation of audience power Qs wants us to judge them differently?

 “When the American Association of Advertising Agencies first looked at commercial ratings in 2005, MTV lost more than 20% of its 18- to 34-year-old prime-time viewers during breaks. Over the course of a day, VH1 lost 14% of its 18- to 49-year-old viewers during breaks”.

Thank God at least the 14 year-olds are sticking around to see the latest prepaid wares from Amp’d mobile.

But to turn this back into a constructive position, and one that would actually help consumers and networks alike, MTV is asking for an engagement measurement – which not only makes sense given their content, but would also elevate the general state of TV advertising overall (imagine if networks could punish marketers and agencies for ads that cause program attrition: “Ok, Skittles, even thought the Clio folks loved the weirdo-long-beard-guy, 12% of our audience didn’t and they changed the channel. You owe us $286/CPM on that loss). I want my MTV indeed.

MTV (the channel, not the Network) was once a giant at inventing new programming genres that could attract and keep finicky teens and YAs: , Remote control, Yo! MTV Raps, Liquid Television Real World, Newlyweds, The Osbournes, Jackass…  Now, let’s see if they can temporarily redirect the focus of even finickier media buyers and their clients. I want my MTV indeed.

Video, in the end, may just kill the video star.